Picked apart by others for months, their turn to weigh in

Like eager pitmasters with stabbing forks in hand, lined up along a Texas-sized table full of freshly smoked pork butt, hundreds of NFL Draft experts since January have completely picked apart this year’s top five quarterback prospects.

Every morsel of meat has been separated from bone and gristle for us to devour, with sweet sauce mopped on sparingly.

But now, with the NFL Draft only days away (it runs next Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday afternoon in Dallas), it’s time we let the fab fivesome weigh in themselves, on themselves — to address their own positives, negatives and personalities, in their own words, from answers given to Postmedia and other media outlets last month at NFL Scouting Combine news conferences:

Sam Darnold. (John Kryk/Postmedia)

SAM DARNOLD

University of Southern California

Capistrano Beach, Calif.

6-foot-3, 220 pounds

9-3/8 inch hand

Junior

Age: 20

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Most pro-ready attribute: “I think I can make split-second decisions and just kind of let it go. Sometimes that can get you in trouble, and that’s something I’ve been working on. But, again, I think just going with my instincts is my best attribute … I think I’m as ready as I can be. Obviously there’s some work to do still.”

Needs improvement the most: “The one thing that I really need to work on is the fumbles. That’s something that can’t happen, and I’m aware of that.”

Personal: “If Cleveland takes me No. 1, that’d be a great opportunity … I really want to just prove to people that I’m capable of leading a franchise. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be the No. 1 team that selects me. It can be any team. Throughout this process I’m just going to continue to be myself, and if a team happens to fall in love with me and takes me No. 1, or they take me wherever in the draft, I’d be happy to go anywhere.”

BAKER MAYFIELD

University of Oklahoma

Austin, Texas

6-foot-1, 220 pounds

9¼-inch hand

Senior

Age: 23

—

Most pro-ready attribute: “Accuracy. I’m the most accurate quarterback in this draft, by far.”

Needs improvement the most: “Of things I need to improve on, just keeping my base. Footwork, staying clean in the pocket. I think that’s going to help out my timing, not being late with the ball. So when you’re clean with your feet, your mind goes quickly.”

Personal: “I’m going to be the best to ever play … I don’t think I’m cocky. It’s not cocky, it’s just confident. Every (pro player) has earned their way into that locker room. I get it, those guys are trying to feed their families. But I’m not going to go in there and act like I’ve got it figured out. I’m always trying to improve. I never have once said, ‘Oh, I’ve made it.’ I’ve always been the first one to say, ‘My mistake,’ or ‘I need to get better.’ That’s how I’m always going to handle it.”

JOSH ALLEN

Most pro-ready attribute: “Obviously the size. I think I’m the biggest guy here … The things you see on the field, the arm strength, the mobility.”

Needs improvement the most: “I’m just working on consistent footwork. Kind of every throw that I had this past season where I missed, it was derived from my feet, so I try to put myself in the most uncomfortable position, getting back to the same base, short front stride, letting everything else follow through and sequence consistently. Hopefully we’re getting close … I feel improvement and I feel like whenever my feet are set, I’m as accurate as anybody.”

Personal: “The thing that I pride myself on is my competitive nature. I’m the type of guy who, the only thing that I want to do is win, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to win. I don’t care how we get it done as long as it gets done. That’s kind of how people value and rank you among other quarterbacks, is how you win.”

Josh Rosen. (John Kryk/Postmedia)

JOSH ROSEN

UCLA

Manhattan Beach, Calif.

6-foot-4, 218 pounds

9-7/8-inch hand

Junior

Age: 21

—

Most pro-ready attribute: “I think I make very quick decisions – very quick and decisive decisions. I always say that if you can get to 3-4 reads in your progression, you give yourself more opportunities to get the ball down the field. If you’re a 1-2-then-run guy, and you throw the ball (30 times) a game, you’re giving yourself 70, 80 opportunities to get the ball down the field. If you can get into 1-2-3-4 (reads), then you’re giving yourself 150, 160 – twice as many. That’s where I think my best attribute is. I can sit in the pocket and really pick defences apart.”

Needs improvement the most: “I think as windows get smaller and DBs get more athletic, I think I have to continue to push accuracy and anticipation. Even though I think it’s a strength of mine, I think you have to continually get better.”

Personal: “Off the field I’ve learned how to conduct myself a lot better. I’m not going to change who I am. I still am me. I just (learned) there’s a time and place for everything … You’ve got to own your mistakes. I may not have not actually broken the letter of the law, but I understand that I have made mistakes in the past and I have grown from it.”

Lamar Jackson. (John Kryk/Postmedia)

LAMAR JACKSON

University of Louisville

Pompano Beach, Fla.

6-foot-2, 200 pounds

9½-inch hand

Junior

Age: 21

—

Most pro-ready attribute: “I can avoid pressure. If a lineman breaks down and someone’s coming free, I can break that and keep my eyes down field. I feel I can do that the best – keep my eyes downfield, trying to find an open target … I sense pressure very well. I don’t know – just God-given ability.”

Needs improvement the most: “I had a nervous stance in college. I do look at film and I noticed that myself. I’ve been working on that a lot, in working on my accuracy. So that’s what I have to show off. I feel that’s why they’re down on me right now.”

Personal: “I’ve had adversity throughout my whole life. Since youth football, and going through high school. They said you can’t do this and that. Got into college and was able to do it, so I’m here now, and I’m ready for it … No teams have asked me to be a wide receiver. I don’t even know where that’s coming from. I’m strictly a quarterback, yessir.”

Darnold leads my Top 5 QBs

Almost everybody agrees on who the Top 5 quarterbacks are in this year’s NFL Draft class. You just won’t find much agreement on the order.

That’s because as celebrated as this fivesome has been as a group (they’re all expected to be first-round picks, which would be only the third time since 1967 as many as five passers went that high), each has his warts.

Indeed, as NFL Network’s chief draft analyst Mike Mayock said on a conference call with reporters on Friday, “The two easiest quarterback evaluations I’ve had in the last eight or 10 years are Andrew Luck and Carson Wentz … I don’t see anybody in this class that I get the same gut feel for as those two.”

Here’s how I rank the almost-fantastic five:

1)SAM DARNOLD: Likeliest to sparkle. Has all the physical tools – size, arm – plus impressive ability on the run to find receivers deep or short. And Darnold apparently checks all the boxes off the field; if anything, he’s too humble. Darnold shone much of the time at a big-time school, on big-time stages, against big-time defenders. His biggest negatives? The too-numerous careless pocket fumbles and forced interceptions he threw in college. But they’re more easily correctable than any of the principal flaws of the other four. Hello, Cleveland.

2)JOSH ROSEN: Analysts gush over his pro-ready, top-shelf passing skills: pristine mechanics; he excels at reading defences and going through progressions; he’s as accurate as you could hope for; and he’s got the right mix of confidence and leadership personality. Some knock Rosen’s California rich-kid upbringing, and question how much he ‘needs’ to succeed in the pros. That’s all bull. If anything, the fact he has made it this far suggests his love for the game already is a proven fact, and thus is unlikely to dissolve should he score a huge second contract. Rosen’s biggest problem is pocket awareness. Too often in college he didn’t seem to have any, and got pounded and hurt so much that some think he’s frail and smaller of frame than he actually is. Skeptics fear his pro career, as a result, will be short.

3)BAKER MAYFIELD: He’s the Napolean of quarterbacks – born with a giant’s attitude, aggrievement and ambition, all crammed into a defiantly undersized frame. The most daring aerial playmaker of this bunch, Mayfield is highly accurate too, and more proficient with pro passing concepts than many believe. But as much as Oklahoma players and coaches insist that his Sooners teammates, without exception, loved the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner, it’s an entirely different beast trying to win over grown-ass men with over-the-top cockiness built on a blank pro resume. He’s often compared to Johnny Manziel both on the field and off. At Mayfield’s short size to boot (few NFL QBs who stand 6-foot-1 or shorter ever make it), Mayfield is a bold dice-roll as a Top 10 selection.

4)LAMAR JACKSON: My takeaway from watching him throw at the combine was he relies way too much on his talented arm, mechanics-wise. The 2016 Heisman winner doesn’t get much below his ribcage into most throws; hence his footwork is a mess. That means he has a long, long way to go to become a reliable pro pocket passer. But he’s a breathtaking athlete who can make more than enough progression reads and throws, inside and outside the pocket, as to be able to succeed right away under a bold, open-minded coaching staff in a non-traditional pro offence.

5)JOSH ALLEN: Retired head coach Bruce Arians has said he wouldn’t hesitate to draft a QB, or any player, who didn’t play big-time college ball, so long as he dominated against lesser completion. Allen didn’t. He was good, not great. What’s more, he might possess the strongest arm since Jamarcus Russell, as Mayock says, but Allen’s sub-60% accuracy (he’s especially deficient throwing to his left) and reported blank-stare confusion when facing curveball defensive looks in college are screaming warning sirens.

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